French Open Preview
The men’s side of the French Open basically comes down to three players: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
And things became quite interesting when the tournament draw occurred. All three wound up on the same side, which means Nadal and Djokovic could face each other in a quarterfinal. The French Open runs May 22-June 5
Nadal’s mark on the clay in Paris is astonishing. He is 105-3 and has won 13 titles. He started his reign in 2005 and added another in 2020.
What intrigues about the quarterfinal possibility is two of Nadal’s three losses in Paris have come to Djokovic.
The Serb, who returns to Major play after missing the Australian Open in January due to COVID-19 protocols, defeated Nadal in a 2015 quarterfinal and a semifinal last year.
The first player to topple Nadal on the Roland Garros clay was Sweden’s Robin Soderling and that was in a fourth-round match in 2009.
Nadal, the fifth seed, has been battling injuries as he returns to the place he is King of the Clay Court.
Alcaraz, seeded sixth, is the hottest player on the men’s tour, having won 17 of his last 18 matches. He also became the first player to down Djokovic and Nadal in the same tourney on a clay surface. That happened recently in Madrid.
This has happened 12 times on all surfaces but was the first time on clay. To give you an idea of how big of a feat it is, Nadal and Djokovic have combined for 41 Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic is the No. 1 seed in this tournament. He will seek his third French Open., winning last year and in 2016.
The second seed is in the other side of the draw, Daniil Medvedev. His potential quarterfinal matchup would be against No. 7 Andrey Rublev. Neither of the Russians will be able to play at Wimbledon next month because of their country’s invasion of the Ukraine.
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